diff --git a/cpp/src/groupby/sort/group_argmax.cu b/cpp/src/groupby/sort/group_argmax.cu
index bed64c5147a..6ce23ffc35b 100644
--- a/cpp/src/groupby/sort/group_argmax.cu
+++ b/cpp/src/groupby/sort/group_argmax.cu
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Copyright (c) 2020, NVIDIA CORPORATION.
+ * Copyright (c) 2020-2021, NVIDIA CORPORATION.
  *
  * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
  * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@
 
 #include <rmm/cuda_stream_view.hpp>
 
-#include <thrust/transform.h>
+#include <thrust/gather.h>
 
 namespace cudf {
 namespace groupby {
@@ -39,29 +39,24 @@ std::unique_ptr<column> group_argmax(column_view const& values,
                                  num_groups,
                                  group_labels,
                                  stream,
-                                 rmm::mr::get_current_device_resource());
+                                 mr);
 
   // The functor returns the index of maximum in the sorted values.
   // We need the index of maximum in the original unsorted values.
   // So use indices to gather the sort order used to sort `values`.
   // Gather map cannot be null so we make a view with the mask removed.
   // The values in data buffer of indices corresponding to null values was
-  // initialized to ARGMAX_SENTINEL which is an out of bounds index value (-1)
-  // and causes the gathered value to be null.
-  column_view null_removed_indices(
-    data_type(type_to_id<size_type>()),
-    indices->size(),
-    static_cast<void const*>(indices->view().template data<size_type>()));
-  auto result_table =
-    cudf::detail::gather(table_view({key_sort_order}),
-                         null_removed_indices,
-                         indices->nullable() ? cudf::out_of_bounds_policy::NULLIFY
-                                             : cudf::out_of_bounds_policy::DONT_CHECK,
-                         cudf::detail::negative_index_policy::NOT_ALLOWED,
-                         stream,
-                         mr);
-
-  return std::move(result_table->release()[0]);
+  // initialized to ARGMAX_SENTINEL. Using gather_if.
+  // This can't use gather because nulls in gathered column will not store ARGMAX_SENTINEL.
+  auto indices_view = indices->mutable_view();
+  thrust::gather_if(rmm::exec_policy(stream),
+                    indices_view.begin<size_type>(),    // map first
+                    indices_view.end<size_type>(),      // map last
+                    indices_view.begin<size_type>(),    // stencil
+                    key_sort_order.begin<size_type>(),  // input
+                    indices_view.begin<size_type>(),    // result
+                    [] __device__(auto i) { return (i != cudf::detail::ARGMAX_SENTINEL); });
+  return indices;
 }
 
 }  // namespace detail
diff --git a/cpp/src/groupby/sort/group_argmin.cu b/cpp/src/groupby/sort/group_argmin.cu
index ec97a609390..ab91c2c0d29 100644
--- a/cpp/src/groupby/sort/group_argmin.cu
+++ b/cpp/src/groupby/sort/group_argmin.cu
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Copyright (c) 2020, NVIDIA CORPORATION.
+ * Copyright (c) 2020-2021, NVIDIA CORPORATION.
  *
  * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
  * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@
 
 #include <rmm/cuda_stream_view.hpp>
 
-#include <thrust/transform.h>
+#include <thrust/gather.h>
 
 namespace cudf {
 namespace groupby {
@@ -39,29 +39,24 @@ std::unique_ptr<column> group_argmin(column_view const& values,
                                  num_groups,
                                  group_labels,
                                  stream,
-                                 rmm::mr::get_current_device_resource());
+                                 mr);
 
   // The functor returns the index of minimum in the sorted values.
   // We need the index of minimum in the original unsorted values.
   // So use indices to gather the sort order used to sort `values`.
-  // Gather map cannot be null so we make a view with the mask removed.
   // The values in data buffer of indices corresponding to null values was
-  // initialized to ARGMIN_SENTINEL which is an out of bounds index value (-1)
-  // and causes the gathered value to be null.
-  column_view null_removed_indices(
-    data_type(type_to_id<size_type>()),
-    indices->size(),
-    static_cast<void const*>(indices->view().template data<size_type>()));
-  auto result_table =
-    cudf::detail::gather(table_view({key_sort_order}),
-                         null_removed_indices,
-                         indices->nullable() ? cudf::out_of_bounds_policy::NULLIFY
-                                             : cudf::out_of_bounds_policy::DONT_CHECK,
-                         cudf::detail::negative_index_policy::NOT_ALLOWED,
-                         stream,
-                         mr);
+  // initialized to ARGMIN_SENTINEL. Using gather_if.
+  // This can't use gather because nulls in gathered column will not store ARGMIN_SENTINEL.
+  auto indices_view = indices->mutable_view();
+  thrust::gather_if(rmm::exec_policy(stream),
+                    indices_view.begin<size_type>(),    // map first
+                    indices_view.end<size_type>(),      // map last
+                    indices_view.begin<size_type>(),    // stencil
+                    key_sort_order.begin<size_type>(),  // input
+                    indices_view.begin<size_type>(),    // result
+                    [] __device__(auto i) { return (i != cudf::detail::ARGMIN_SENTINEL); });
 
-  return std::move(result_table->release()[0]);
+  return indices;
 }
 
 }  // namespace detail
diff --git a/cpp/tests/groupby/max_tests.cpp b/cpp/tests/groupby/max_tests.cpp
index e0da55b080f..b5710d3f4bc 100644
--- a/cpp/tests/groupby/max_tests.cpp
+++ b/cpp/tests/groupby/max_tests.cpp
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Copyright (c) 2019-2020, NVIDIA CORPORATION.
+ * Copyright (c) 2019-2021, NVIDIA CORPORATION.
  *
  * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
  * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
@@ -162,6 +162,42 @@ TEST_F(groupby_max_string_test, zero_valid_values)
   test_single_agg(keys, vals, expect_keys, expect_vals, std::move(agg2), force_use_sort_impl::YES);
 }
 
+TEST_F(groupby_max_string_test, max_sorted_strings)
+{
+  // testcase replicated in issue #8717
+  cudf::test::strings_column_wrapper keys(
+    {"",   "",   "",   "",   "",   "",   "06", "06", "06", "06", "10", "10", "10", "10", "14", "14",
+     "14", "14", "18", "18", "18", "18", "22", "22", "22", "22", "26", "26", "26", "26", "30", "30",
+     "30", "30", "34", "34", "34", "34", "38", "38", "38", "38", "42", "42", "42", "42"},
+    {0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,
+     1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1});
+  cudf::test::strings_column_wrapper vals(
+    {"", "", "",   "", "", "", "06", "", "", "", "10", "", "", "", "14", "",
+     "", "", "18", "", "", "", "22", "", "", "", "26", "", "", "", "30", "",
+     "", "", "34", "", "", "", "38", "", "", "", "42", "", "", ""},
+    {0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1,
+     0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0});
+  cudf::test::strings_column_wrapper expect_keys(
+    {"06", "10", "14", "18", "22", "26", "30", "34", "38", "42", ""},
+    {1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0});
+  cudf::test::strings_column_wrapper expect_vals(
+    {"06", "10", "14", "18", "22", "26", "30", "34", "38", "42", ""},
+    {1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0});
+
+  // fixed_width_column_wrapper<size_type> expect_argmax(
+  // {6, 10, 14, 18, 22, 26, 30, 34, 38, 42, -1},
+  // {1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0});
+  auto agg = cudf::make_max_aggregation();
+  test_single_agg(keys,
+                  vals,
+                  expect_keys,
+                  expect_vals,
+                  std::move(agg),
+                  force_use_sort_impl::NO,
+                  null_policy::INCLUDE,
+                  sorted::YES);
+}
+
 struct groupby_dictionary_max_test : public cudf::test::BaseFixture {
 };
 
diff --git a/cpp/tests/groupby/min_tests.cpp b/cpp/tests/groupby/min_tests.cpp
index 8f997875a78..1544e867595 100644
--- a/cpp/tests/groupby/min_tests.cpp
+++ b/cpp/tests/groupby/min_tests.cpp
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Copyright (c) 2019-2020, NVIDIA CORPORATION.
+ * Copyright (c) 2019-2021, NVIDIA CORPORATION.
  *
  * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
  * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
@@ -162,6 +162,42 @@ TEST_F(groupby_min_string_test, zero_valid_values)
   test_single_agg(keys, vals, expect_keys, expect_vals, std::move(agg2), force_use_sort_impl::YES);
 }
 
+TEST_F(groupby_min_string_test, min_sorted_strings)
+{
+  // testcase replicated in issue #8717
+  cudf::test::strings_column_wrapper keys(
+    {"",   "",   "",   "",   "",   "",   "06", "06", "06", "06", "10", "10", "10", "10", "14", "14",
+     "14", "14", "18", "18", "18", "18", "22", "22", "22", "22", "26", "26", "26", "26", "30", "30",
+     "30", "30", "34", "34", "34", "34", "38", "38", "38", "38", "42", "42", "42", "42"},
+    {0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,
+     1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1});
+  cudf::test::strings_column_wrapper vals(
+    {"", "", "",   "", "", "", "06", "", "", "", "10", "", "", "", "14", "",
+     "", "", "18", "", "", "", "22", "", "", "", "26", "", "", "", "30", "",
+     "", "", "34", "", "", "", "38", "", "", "", "42", "", "", ""},
+    {0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1,
+     0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0});
+  cudf::test::strings_column_wrapper expect_keys(
+    {"06", "10", "14", "18", "22", "26", "30", "34", "38", "42", ""},
+    {1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0});
+  cudf::test::strings_column_wrapper expect_vals(
+    {"06", "10", "14", "18", "22", "26", "30", "34", "38", "42", ""},
+    {1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0});
+
+  // fixed_width_column_wrapper<size_type> expect_argmin(
+  // {6, 10, 14, 18, 22, 26, 30, 34, 38, 42, -1},
+  // {1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0});
+  auto agg = cudf::make_min_aggregation();
+  test_single_agg(keys,
+                  vals,
+                  expect_keys,
+                  expect_vals,
+                  std::move(agg),
+                  force_use_sort_impl::NO,
+                  null_policy::INCLUDE,
+                  sorted::YES);
+}
+
 struct groupby_dictionary_min_test : public cudf::test::BaseFixture {
 };